Kolkata, Nov 5 (PTI) India's top squash player Saurav Ghosal is skipping the Senior National Championships and instead looking to defend the title in the USD 30,000 Kolkata International meet beginning here Wednesday.

"There's a big event lined up in Hong Kong at the end of this month and then there is another one in Egypt from December 3-9. So starting with the Asian Games in August, I will end up playing nine events in about four months which is a lot," the 12-time champion, who played in every national championship since he was 17, said.

The national meet is slated next month in New Delhi.

"The next big event starting in the PSA circuit is from January 8 in Mumbai. It's a USD 70,000 event. So I just feel that this is an objective decision rather than an emotional one," the 32-year-old said.

The world number one has got the top billing in the meet. In the last edition in 2015, he defeated former world number 1 Marwan El Shorbagy.

The five-day meet is a part of the 225th anniversary celebrations of the Calcutta Racket Club with the draw featuring Egyptian pair of world number 27 Zahed Salem and world number 34 Youssef Soliman.

Todd Harrity (48th) of the USA and Indians Harinder Pal Sandhu (59th) and Ramit Tandon (68th) also feature in the meet.

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